A focus on green schemes has prompted a major expansion at the Birmingham office of an international engineering consultancy.

Chris Evans, Aston-based area director with Hyder Consulting, said staffing levels in the city had shot up in the last three years from 80 to 170.

That was largely driven by a strategy to boost its advice work on sustainability and new environmental projects.

He said: "We're increasingly looking at all aspects of the environmental side from business sustainability and green power to waste management and recycling."

The Aston office had launched modules for local schools in which its staff went in and talked on green issues.

It had also been briefed to address pollution problems in cleaning underneath railway carriages and the resulting design at Tyseley rail depot had landed a national Institution of Civil Engineers innovation award.

Announcing results for the year ending on March 31, chief executive Tim Wade said: "One of the biggest issues facing the UK is land use. Ambitious targets for new housing and infrastructure have to be balanced with environmental considerations such as land remediation, habitat protection and flood risk."

The 2012 London Olympics would further increases demand in those areas. As well as the UK and Europe, Hyder operates in the Middle East and Asia Pacific countries.

Hyder said yesterday full-year pretax profit was mark-edly improved on last year and current trading was ahead of market expectations.

The engineering consultancy said pretax profit grew to £8.3 million from £2.6 million as sales rose 26 per cent to £171.3 million from £136.2 million a year earlier.

Hyder is proposing to pay a final dividend of 0.9p per share, making a total dividend of 1.25p, up 67 per cent on the 0.75p paid out last year.

The company said its order book increased 30 per cent to £240 million and revenue for the year was up due to strong growth across all regions, and an increased proportion of sub contracted work.

Mr Wade said the Birmingham office was a full service operation for a range of areas including property highways, environment and water management.

Staff from the Birmingham office were playing a part in what will be the world's tallest building - the 800 metre Burj Tower in Dubai - by backing up Hyder's Middle Eastern division.

The city office was also helping drive forward a two pronged £72 million Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) Highways project with Morrison Construction in the region.

That will see improvements carried out at junction 15 of the M40 and at the Tollbar roundabout at the A45/A46 near Coventry airport.

ECIs are Government schemes designed to get experts together early to boost innovation and improve risk management.